Does Tinnitus Get Worse Over Time?

I don't think most people will get worse over time. But even if it does, I believe in progressive habituation, which means your ability to adjust to the new condition, given time, will increase. It is like you move from a country side to the city and take a while to adjust to the city traffic noise. Now if the traffic increase is happening over time around where you live, you may not be as distressed over it than initially. I have watched this video of David Letterman and William Shatner talking over their own tinnitus in 1996, in which Letterman & Shatner were saying their T are getting worse. But as of today, both of them are still living a productive life and Letterman still cracking jokes. So don't worry too much about the future.

 

To me it is hard to tell if it gets worse or I have a relapse. I'm on my third relapse since the onset. I've had many goos years after habituating. I'm in my fourth month and my Tinnitus is starting to make moves everyday. One day it tells me enjoy the day. The next it can sneer and become loud. It usually takes 12-18 month for full habituation. I think the important denominators are sleep and DO NOT DWELL ON THE SOUND. I know it is hard but with time...
God bless.

 

It is important to "Live our lives and not our worries". Sometimes it is easier said than done. I read something that resonated with me posted by a member that I liked. He said that he writes down each day what he is thankful for and that helps him to stay positive.

 

I really don't think tinnitus gets worse over time. Most people have it steady and constant despite what you may read around here. Gotta remember... we are the folk that are extremely bugged by it... the unlucky outliers.

I will say maybe stuff that happens as life goes on will make your T worse but nothing about what it is now is going to make it worse down the road. And by stuff I mean stress, medications, or loud noises.

 

This s..t is so unpredictable that no one knows what to expect from minute to minute, let alone years

 

But so is life dear. The only thing that we can be sure of is that we will die one day. Unfortunately he security that we have is only illusory and it could break apart every minute. The only real peace we can have is inner one and thats the hardest one to achieve.

 

@Stina
I will have to disagree with you.
Even though life is unpredictable, not everyone wakes up in the morning and thinks: oh, another day of hell!
Not everyone is worried what the plane ride will do to them, what dental visit will do to them, what a simple medication will do to them, what going out to the bar for drinks will do to them, whether one of these things will be life changing?!
Things that normal people do, and we used to do too, now have a potential to tip one over the edge.
So comparing t to the unpredictability of life is simply not realistic.

 

I understand the point of posting this video but at the same time it makes me angry and furious that people like them are making it even entertaining.
Looking at these two cracking up a joke about t, no wonder there is no cure to this day.
Who would take it seriously after watching this? People in audience even clapping, having fun


Has anyone seen any jokes about cancer?

 

I disagree with you as well.
There are people who wake up thinking like that and these are the people who are mentally challenged. I come from a family where depression and anxiety disorders are genetic and this is how we wake up and see the world. Yes we dont worry about plane rides and dental visits, but life can be a nuisance and every day a challenge, not to speak about constant fear of what could happen starting from MD finishing with a bear attack in the woods. Nowadays there are more and more of these problems so id say quite a lot of people think like that.
The reality is that life is in indeed unpredictable but if you think like that you will go crazy. Tinnitus is indeed an unpleasant condition but my guess is that millions, maybe even several billions of people have chronic diseases. Tinnitus is not really different from any of them. Preventing and being careful doesn't equal being worried: the first one is a productive activity, the other in this situation is not. The best we can do is accept this fact and move on.

 

And yes, unfortunately I have seen many-many jokes about cancer and in fact a lot of other conditions. For example a lot of people blamed Robin Williams for killing themselves although depression should be a very well known issue in (social) media.

 

William Shatner was actually suicidal at one point with his tinnitus. He said he wouldn't know how to go on and ATA saved his life. He later became the spokesperson for ATA lobbying Congress for more funding research on tinnitus. So I won't fault him for the David Letterman show. Every one is entitled to one's opinion. For me, I took it from watching the video during my darkest time a few years back that if Shatner can recover so well from his days of suicidal suffering from T, then it gives me hope that I perhaps can survive my T too. He was actually a younger Shatner in the 1996 show. The following video is an older Shatner who is as sincere as he can be pleading for people to help the cause of tinnitus research, as you can feel his serious tone about the serious ailment affecting millions.

William Shatner speaks about his tinnitus

 

It has been quite a few years since I got tinnitus but recently I have noticed that it seems to have become permanently louder. Normally it would fluctuate from day to day and it would go down to a low level. I have avoided most loud noises. I am wondering if the normal level noises over the years has done this to me.

Now my hearing is important to me as one of my hobbies is music so its not just annoying, it could eventually prevent me enjoying music.

I am also wondering if the recent ear syringing had anything to do with it.

 

Ear syringing has caused T to many many ppl on this board .
Did you go to a concert or a loud movie ?

 

not recently. But I noticed a worsening of the T before the ear syringing. I did the ear syringing due to wax buildup.
It wasn't that loud.

 

Ear syringing has caused T to many ppl ..I think since you had T it probably got aggrevated by syringing ..did it happen within 24 hours or so after syringing ?

 

yes but that doesn't mean it was syringing that caused it

 

Yes ..but it could have .

 

Hi there many of us battle our T in many different ways but the hardest thing for me is as bad as my T is 24/7 on my mind I read and hear of peoples T getting worse as time goes ....For those/us hanging on by a thread how do you deal with this fear?

 

It's awful coming to these forums and reading the worst case scenario exceptions. I have the same worries such as what situations to avoid, how much protection to use etc. I think it's important to try to not dwell on these worst case scenarios as best as you can. Maybe your T will stay the same, it could improve, it could get worse. Nobody knows. It's best to take things day by day and not dwell on hypotheticals. If it gets worse you will deal with it at that time. There are people on here who have lived with it for 40+ years and still going strong.

 

I am 23, and have had tinnitus for about 10 years. My tinnitus seems to have started with a nasty double ear infection, rather than with hearing loss, as my hearing hasn't seem to have gotten significantly worse over the years. I have been in a lot of situations where I come across loud noises, especially music, as I go to the bars frequently with friends. I try to keep my distance from speakers and live bands when possible in those situations. I have been able to ignore the noise in my ears for most of the time I have had tinnitus, but I sometimes get afraid that as I age, it will get to a point where I can't stand it anymore.

 

No not really, that's not exactly how Tinnitus works.
In lets say almost all cases Tinnitus either remains the same or gets better over time, it rarely and I mean really rarely gets worse even after a lot of time passing, as for you losing your hearing and Tinnitus getting worse, let me put it like this, you may lose the upper stuff like 13-20 000 Hz but there are so so so few sounds in the real world of that frequency, the sounds you hear every day will remain the same as long as you don't beat up on your ears, I'm not talking once in a while loud noises I mean headphone loud music and such.
Don't let the internet forums, this one in particular fool you, Tinnitus is rarely as bad as some people here have it.
So don't worry about it, the only thing that happens with Tinnitus+Time is that you ignore it even more or it just straight up lowers on it's own for no apparent reason.

Also the way I like to look at it is, by the time I'm say 30 there will be much better treatments for lowering or even curing Tinnitus in some forms (laser therapy or something like that) so why worry, you wouldn't be worrying if you're gonna have a heart attack in 10 years now would you?

 

I know I would be XD

 

of course it will get permanent worse, what do you expect it will get permanently cured? Its a terrible disease. As you lose hearing with age you will hear more T. More hearing loss means more tinnitus

 

Yes, gotta agree with this one, mate.

 

I think it really depends on what the underlying cause of your tinnitus is. If you can attack the cause (if that is possible) it will probably get better with time. When I got this, the first think I thought was making changes in my life. Maybe one of my bad habbits were pushing this in the wrong way. I started exercise more, I eat healthier, Ive started drinking something called golden drinks wich is milk mixed with Turmeric powder wich has some great antibacterial and antiinflamatory properties, and ive made better sleeping habbits. Dont expect results over night. Bad habbits takes time to get you sick and good habbits may take time to get you healthy. Ive noticed that my tinnitus is graduatly getting less loud, especially after drinking one golden drink daily.

 

Hello ! I'm really scared now...
I'm only 19 and I can not imagine what my tinnitus in 10 or 20 years...
Do you think a tinnitus associated with trauma acoustic increases it?

 

I've had bad T since '74. It was made worse by loud music in the early and late 80's then again about 10 years ago. With those big 3 blasts of loud music my T went WAY up then back down but each 'baseline' volume crept up a little. Now please realize I'm talking about very loud music. Extremely loud. Earth shaking loud. I should have known better. Sometimes loud music is just fun but I'm paying for it. Your case may be different. Who really knows?

 

How loud is it now?

 

It's loud. As loud as a tea kettle if I were in the kitchen. But I only hear it really a couple times a day, which is WONDERFUL.
40 years ago it was mostly in one ear and higher pitched and not as loud.

 

I wish I hadn't read this thread, but yeah - I just always assumed as your hearing decreases, T will get worse